Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I have a strange sinking feeling. No, not literally sinking. Just an inkling that today I'm going to discover that something really bad happened to my boat at the weekend.

The weather at the weekend was awful. High winds and driving rain. There was a slight reduction in the wind on Sunday afternoon and apparently half a dozen hardy souls actually went Laser racing at Newport. But not me. I stayed at home.

Yesterday evening I received an email from the fleet captain...

The wind gusted into the 50s on Saturday night and knocked more than a few Lasers off their dollies. A few were tossed quite a distance and sustained some serious damage. At least two were all but totaled. By the time the Laser fleet had arrived the parents of the Opti kids had put the boats back on their dollies. So we don't know exactly which boats were damaged. If you can, get down to Sail Newport during the week and give your boat the once over... the word is 12 or so boats were off kilter.

Thanks Sam. At my previous frostbiting club we used to tie all the boats down to concrete blocks, but not here. I was wondering about whether tying it to the dollie would help... a bit of extra weight and at least it won't land on the bottom of the hull after taking flight. My boat is pretty much in the middle of the boat park that is tightly packed with Lasers, so it is as protected from the winds as it can be... unless of course some other boat went flying and landed on it.

I think your last advice is the best. Next year I will keep the boat at home, which also gives me the flexibility to sail at another nearby Laser fleet on Saturdays if I want to.

Let me just say I lost my 1970 era (#194) boat off the roof of my car pulling a U-turn. She came sliding off the roof, took out my side view mirror, bounced, rolled upright, and looked very indignant at me as I came jumping out of my car.

Except for some cracked sections along the rail, she was sound. Resilient!

I hope you find your boat cocooned in a bubble of protection! Good luck!

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